Antique Magazine Articles and Post Cards about Grand Manan

Old Magazine Articles, Brochures, Antique Post Cards, and Prints

I have scanned several old articles and stories from my collection about Grand Manan. These are PDF files, some fairly large.

Travel story in the Boston Sunday Globe, 18 September 2005 a nice story centering on dulsing, plus travel information

Beachcombing for Gemstones on Grand Manan Island, March 1971 article by Curtis H. Gates in Lapidary Journal

Grand Manan Tourism Booklet, 1959 by the Board of Trade, on the 175th anniversary. Interesting advertisements

The Grand Manan Mood, July 1959 Down East Magazine, by Herbert J. Seligmann, who thought we needed a new ferry!

Willa Cather at Grand Manan, in The Atlantic Advocate, April 1957 written by L. K. Ingersoll, with some photos

Grand Manan as Seen by John Fisher, 9 May 1953 text of a CBC radio broadcast

Round New Brunswick Roads, 1951 by Lillian Maxwell, an excerpt from her book that covers Grand Manan

Grim Grand Manan, Harpers Monthly, August 1912 interesting stories and tall tales, with fine watercolors by W. J. Aylward

At the Turn of the Tide, Harpers Monthly, January 1903 fictional but insulting enough for the author to lose some island friends

Grand Manan, New England Magazine, 1899 by William I. Cole, with many interesting photographs

The Quoddy Islands, Aug. 1892 Frank Leslie's Popular Monthly Magazine by W. A. Croffut, who sails from Lubec to Grand Manan

A Visit to Grand Manan, 22 October 1881 Boston Evening Transcript, a description by a correspondent pub. 31 October 1881

Porpoise Shooting, Scribner's Monthly, 1880 an amazing tale of Passamaquoddy hunters. A pdf from scans by Cornell University.

Grand Manan, Boston Daily Advertiser, August 1, 1879 Two travelers went to GM from Eastport, staying at the Marble Ridge Hotel.

Grand Manan and 'Quoddy Bay, Harpers Monthly, 1878 the author did not appreciate our fog, but it has fine illustrations by Bricher.

St. Andrews Bay Pilot column about tourism on Grand Manan, 1878 a little confusing, but Captain Pettes and other inn keepers get compliments

Testimony of James A. Pettes to the U.S. Fishery Commission, 1877 part of an inquiry into violations of the 1871 fishing treaty.

Daily Telegraph news article, 1872 the reporter visits a copper occurrence in Eel Brook.

Information about Captain James Allen Pettes, collected by. J. G. McHone as of 4 March 2010

Some History and Geology of Pettes Cove, a short blurb with photos by J. G. McHone, March 2010

I have also collected some old post cards and antique prints of Grand Manan, especially ones that show geological features of the island. I have scanned my cards, but the images of paintings are from various internet websites.

The cards and prints are all reduced to thumbnails, so to see the larger version, just click on it.

The Marathon Hotel has been open since 1871, possibly the oldest in continual operation in Canada. The gambrel roof building or "the annex" was built in the 1860s as the Marble Ridge House, and moved here in 1898 a few hundred meters from the top of Dexters Lane. The building farther left was Captain Pettes' house, also moved in 1898 from Pettes Cove. The card is from 1931.

This print is from Harpers Weekly in 1892, titled "The Cliffs at Grand Manan, New Brunswick." It seems improbable that Victorian gents, and ladies in long skirts, would actually be scaling these steep cliffs. Don't try it yourself, as the basalt is unstable and can break off without warning. The location is probably Gull Cliffs near Southwest Head, where I am told there was a rope to help people get down and up, as depicted. You won't catch me trying it!

Hole-in-the-Wall is eroded out by wave action, assisted by freeze-thaw in the winter. This type of erosion is mechanical and fairly fast, as opposed to chemical and slow (as in limestone caves). The rocks of Fish Head east of Whale Cove are partly meta-basalts, or volcanic lavas that have been recrystallized by pressure and temperature of deep burial (more than 10 km). They are members of the Castalia Group of Late Proterozoic age. A small boat can go through the hole when the tide is right. This 1937 post card does not show much change before how it looks today. At this slow rate of erosion, imagine how long it must have taken for rocks once buried so deep to now be exposed at the surface.

This hand colored card of Hole in the Wall is older than the one above, possibly the 1910s judging from the clothing styles. It looks like there was a columnar structure in the hole, perhaps actually behind it.

This post card might be from the 1920s and is titled "Bradfords Cove Head, Grand Manan, N.B." I have been to Bradfords Cove a couple of times but I don't really recognize this. Bradfords Cove has an easy scramble down a steep grassy slope to the beach, not a high rock cliff. Also, there is no Seven Days Work member visible here, which is at the cove. But maybe this head is the point to the south of the cove (?).

This card is titled "The King" and I suppose this feature looked more regal than "The Bishop." It looks like someone had erected a pole below the top, or maybe it was a small tree. A helpful Facebook friend tells me that it was south of Dark Harbour at a good dulse beach, and it collapsed in a storm long ago (you can see how it was leaning outward). The card is possibly from the 1930s.
Note how long the columns are, like spires of a building. The lower member of the Grand Manan Basalt, called the Dark Harbour Member, is a "colonnade" from bottom to top.

The card has a date of 1939, and is titled "Indian Beach Head." I take it that the entire section from the overlook bench near The Whistle to the head in the distance can be called Indian Beach. See how the Head has a big bald area, now covered by trees. Passamaquoddy people would camp here under the cliffs while hunting porpoise (see the story linked above).

Southern Cross (also called The Old Maid) was for many years a famous landmark, and an icon used by one of the canneries on their labels. It stood about a km northwest of the light at Southwest Head, and was actually best seen from the water or beach (which is not accessible from the trail above). The stubby cross-arms supposedly fell down in the Groundhog Gale of 1976, and I am not sure what part is actually left to see. Possibly a card from the 1930s.

From north of the Southern Cross looking SE, you can almost see the top pf the old SW Head lighthouse. This hand-colored card is possibly from the 1930s.

Seven Days Work is the cliff to the west and north of Whale Cove, which has layers formed by repeated lava flows (201 m.y. old, or earliest Jurassic). This card is old enough to be hand colored, but the artist was not particularly careful about accuracy.

This hand-colored card is dated 1908, an old one. It has a label that has been corrected to read Seal Cove, but no area near Seal Cove looks like this. It was actually taken from the rock off Ashburton Head looking toward Eel Brook Beach. None of these buildings exists today, as you might know, and all of these cleared areas are now wooded. The buildings may have been camps of the Passamaquoddy Indians, who came each summer up to the 1940s to hunt seals and porpoise.

In this card we are looking across Pettes Cove at Swallowtail Head Light, possibly in the 1920s.

The same viewpoint in the 1870's, in this painting by Robert Swain Gifford (1840-1905) called "Pettes Cove." This cove now has mostly cottages, but it was an active fishing area in the 19th century even though, as we see here, it is rather exposed to storm waves.

This 1888 painting by Lucius R. O'Brien (1832-1899) is called "The Grand Cross."

Lucius O'Brien also painted "Eel Cove" in 1880. The viewer is under the cliff of Seven Days Work, looking north across Eel Brook Beach toward Ashburton Head. O'Brien was a well-known Canadian landscape artist, and founding president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1880). He did several scenic island landscapes, including the Southern Cross. To see more of his work, click here. (some have their labels switched -- see if you can find them).

Harrison Bird Brown (1831-1915) was a famous painter from Portland, Maine who did many coastal scenes, including some at Grand Manan. This one is from 1870, called "Camping at Grand Manan with the W. H. Pratt of Boston offshore." i don't know where this scene is on the island, but it might be about the same as the Bricher Morning painting below.

Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908) illustrated the 1878 article posted above, and he did a number of full scale paintings as well. I don't know the date of this one, but it appears to be at Eel Brook Beach looking SE past Seven Days Work, toward Whale Cove.

Bricher painted "Morning at Grand Manan" in 1878. It might be along Seven Days Work toward Ashburton Head, a common subject for both artists and photographers.

Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900) was an important landscape artist from Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford has a collection of his paintings, including this one called "Grand Manan Island, in the Bay of Fundy" (1852). It is reproduced by Chinese copy artists and can be had on eBay in any size you want. This image is one of their copies, I think.

Church also did this sketch of Ashburton Head, I presume also around 1852. It looks pretty much the same today.

Mauritz F. H. de Haas (1832-1895) was a Dutch painter who moved to New York, where he painted numerous seascapes, with several of Grand Manan. He liked to feature the sun on the horizon. This one is called "Fishermen off Grand Manan."

Helen Charters (d. 2007) did this water color of Deep Cove Beach sometime in the 1990's, for Basil and Kay Small of Hole in the Wall Park in North Head.

Helen was a fine artist, especially good with water colors, and a great neighbor who is much missed.

	The Marathon Hotel has been open since 1871, possibly the oldest in continual operation in Canada. The gambrel roof building or "the annex" was built in the 1860s as the Marble Ridge House, and moved here in 1898 a few hundred meters from the top of Dexters Lane. The building farther left was Captain Pettes' house, also moved in 1898 from Pettes Cove. The card is from 1931.
	This print is from Harpers Weekly in 1892, titled "The Cliffs at Grand Manan, New Brunswick." It seems improbable that Victorian gents, and ladies in long skirts, would actually be scaling these steep cliffs. Don't try it yourself, as the basalt is unstable and can break off without warning. The location is probably Gull Cliffs near Southwest Head, where I am told there was a rope to help people get down and up, as depicted. You won't catch me trying it!
	Hole-in-the-Wall is eroded out by wave action, assisted by freeze-thaw in the winter. This type of erosion is mechanical and fairly fast, as opposed to chemical and slow (as in limestone caves). The rocks of Fish Head east of Whale Cove are partly meta-basalts, or volcanic lavas that have been recrystallized by pressure and temperature of deep burial (more than 10 km). They are members of the Castalia Group of Late Proterozoic age. A small boat can go through the hole when the tide is right. This 1937 post card does not show much change before how it looks today. At this slow rate of erosion, imagine how long it must have taken for rocks once buried so deep to now be exposed at the surface.
	This hand colored card of Hole in the Wall is older than the one above, possibly the 1910s judging from the clothing styles. It looks like there was a columnar structure in the hole, perhaps actually behind it.
	This post card might be from the 1920s and is titled "Bradfords Cove Head, Grand Manan, N.B." I have been to Bradfords Cove a couple of times but I don't really recognize this. Bradfords Cove has an easy scramble down a steep grassy slope to the beach, not a high rock cliff. Also, there is no Seven Days Work member visible here, which is at the cove. But maybe this head is the point to the south of the cove (?).
	This card is titled "The King" and I suppose this feature looked more regal than "The Bishop." It looks like someone had erected a pole below the top, or maybe it was a small tree. A helpful Facebook friend tells me that it was south of Dark Harbour at a good dulse beach, and it collapsed in a storm long ago (you can see how it was leaning outward). The card is possibly from the 1930s. Note how long the columns are, like spires of a building. The lower member of the Grand Manan Basalt, called the Dark Harbour Member, is a "colonnade" from bottom to top.
	The card has a date of 1939, and is titled "Indian Beach Head." I take it that the entire section from the overlook bench near The Whistle to the head in the distance can be called Indian Beach. See how the Head has a big bald area, now covered by trees. Passamaquoddy people would camp here under the cliffs while hunting porpoise (see the story linked above).
	Southern Cross (also called The Old Maid) was for many years a famous landmark, and an icon used by one of the canneries on their labels. It stood about a km northwest of the light at Southwest Head, and was actually best seen from the water or beach (which is not accessible from the trail above). The stubby cross-arms supposedly fell down in the Groundhog Gale of 1976, and I am not sure what part is actually left to see. Possibly a card from the 1930s.
	From north of the Southern Cross looking SE, you can almost see the top pf the old SW Head lighthouse. This hand-colored card is possibly from the 1930s.
	Seven Days Work is the cliff to the west and north of Whale Cove, which has layers formed by repeated lava flows (201 m.y. old, or earliest Jurassic). This card is old enough to be hand colored, but the artist was not particularly careful about accuracy.
	This hand-colored card is dated 1908, an old one. It has a label that has been corrected to read Seal Cove, but no area near Seal Cove looks like this. It was actually taken from the rock off Ashburton Head looking toward Eel Brook Beach. None of these buildings exists today, as you might know, and all of these cleared areas are now wooded. The buildings may have been camps of the Passamaquoddy Indians, who came each summer up to the 1940s to hunt seals and porpoise.
	In this card we are looking across Pettes Cove at Swallowtail Head Light, possibly in the 1920s.
	The same viewpoint in the 1870's, in this painting by Robert Swain Gifford (1840-1905) called "Pettes Cove." This cove now has mostly cottages, but it was an active fishing area in the 19th century even though, as we see here, it is rather exposed to storm waves.
	This 1888 painting by Lucius R. O'Brien (1832-1899) is called "The Grand Cross."
	Lucius O'Brien also painted "Eel Cove" in 1880. The viewer is under the cliff of Seven Days Work, looking north across Eel Brook Beach toward Ashburton Head. O'Brien was a well-known Canadian landscape artist, and founding president of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (1880). He did several scenic island landscapes, including the Southern Cross. To see more of his work, click here. (some have their labels switched -- see if you can find them).
	Harrison Bird Brown (1831-1915) was a famous painter from Portland, Maine who did many coastal scenes, including some at Grand Manan. This one is from 1870, called "Camping at Grand Manan with the W. H. Pratt of Boston offshore." i don't know where this scene is on the island, but it might be about the same as the Bricher Morning painting below.
	Alfred Thompson Bricher (1837-1908) illustrated the 1878 article posted above, and he did a number of full scale paintings as well. I don't know the date of this one, but it appears to be at Eel Brook Beach looking SE past Seven Days Work, toward Whale Cove.
	Bricher painted "Morning at Grand Manan" in 1878. It might be along Seven Days Work toward Ashburton Head, a common subject for both artists and photographers.
	Frederick Edwin Church (1826-1900) was an important landscape artist from Hartford, Connecticut. The Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford has a collection of his paintings, including this one called "Grand Manan Island, in the Bay of Fundy" (1852). It is reproduced by Chinese copy artists and can be had on eBay in any size you want. This image is one of their copies, I think.
	Church also did this sketch of Ashburton Head, I presume also around 1852. It looks pretty much the same today.
	Mauritz F. H. de Haas (1832-1895) was a Dutch painter who moved to New York, where he painted numerous seascapes, with several of Grand Manan. He liked to feature the sun on the horizon. This one is called "Fishermen off Grand Manan."
	Helen Charters (d. 2007) did this water color of Deep Cove Beach sometime in the 1990's, for Basil and Kay Small of Hole in the Wall Park in North Head.
	Helen was a fine artist, especially good with water colors, and a great neighbor who is much missed.